Django Forms: if not valid, show form with error message

In Django forms, it can check whether the form is valid:

if form.is_valid(): 
    return HttpResponseRedirect('/thanks/')

But I'm missing what to do if it isn't valid? How do I return the form with the error messages? I'm not seeing the "else" in any of the examples.


If you render the same view when the form is not valid then in template you can access the form errors using form.errors.

{% if form.errors %}
    {% for field in form %}
        {% for error in field.errors %}
            <div class="alert alert-danger">
                <strong>{{ error|escape }}</strong>
            </div>
        {% endfor %}
    {% endfor %}
    {% for error in form.non_field_errors %}
        <div class="alert alert-danger">
            <strong>{{ error|escape }}</strong>
        </div>
    {% endfor %}
{% endif %}

An example:

def myView(request):
    form = myForm(request.POST or None, request.FILES or None)
    if request.method == 'POST':
        if form.is_valid():
            return HttpResponseRedirect('/thanks/')
    return render(request, 'my_template.html', {'form': form})

views.py

from django.contrib import messages 

def view_name(request):
    if request.method == 'POST':
        form = form_class(request.POST)
        if form.is_valid():
            return HttpResponseRedirect('/thanks'/)
        else:
            messages.error(request, "Error")
return render(request, 'page.html', {'form':form_class()})

If you want to show the errors of the form other than that not valid just put {{form.as_p}} like what I did below

page.html

<html>
    <head>
        <script>
            {% if messages %}
                {% for message in messages %}
                    alert('{{message}}')
                {% endfor %}
            {% endif %}
        </script>
    </head>
    <body>
        {{form.as_p}}
    </body>
</html> 

UPDATE: Added a more detailed description of the formset errors.


Form.errors combines all field and non_field_errors. Therefore you can simplify the html to this:

template

    {% load form_tags %}

    {% if form.errors %}
    <div class="alert alert-danger alert-dismissible col-12 mx-1" role="alert">
        <div id="form_errors">
            {% for key, value in form.errors.items %}
                <span class="fieldWrapper">
                    {{ key }}:{{ value }}
                </span>
            {% endfor %}
        </div>
        <button type="button" class="close" data-dismiss="alert" aria-label="Close">
            <span aria-hidden="true">&times;</span>
        </button>
    </div>
    {% endif %}


If you want to generalise it you can create a list_errors.html which you include in every form template. It handles form and formset errors:

    {% if form.errors %}
    <div class="alert alert-danger alert-dismissible col-12 mx-1" role="alert">
        <div id="form_errors">

            {% for key, value in form.errors.items %}
                <span class="fieldWrapper">
                    {{ key }}:{{ value }}
                </span>
            {% endfor %}
        </div>
        <button type="button" class="close" data-dismiss="alert" aria-label="Close">
            <span aria-hidden="true">&times;</span>
        </button>
    </div>
    {% elif formset.total_error_count %}
    <div class="alert alert-danger alert-dismissible col-12 mx-1" role="alert">
        <div id="form_errors">
            {% if formset.non_form_errors %}
                {{ formset.non_form_errors }}
            {% endif %}
            {% for form in formset.forms %}
                {% if form.errors %}
                    Form number {{ forloop.counter }}:
                    <ul class="errorlist">
                    {% for key, error in form.errors.items %}
                        <li>{{form.fields|get_label:key}}
                            <ul class="errorlist">
                                <li>{{error}}</li>
                            </ul>
                        </li>
                    {% endfor %}
                    </ul>
                {% endif %}
            {% endfor %}

        </div>
    </div>

    {% endif %}

form_tags.py

from django import template

register = template.Library()


def get_label(a_dict, key):
    return getattr(a_dict.get(key), 'label', 'No label')


register.filter("get_label", get_label)

One caveat: In contrast to forms Formset.errors does not include non_field_errors.


def some_view(request):
    if request.method == 'POST':
        form = SomeForm(request.POST)
        if form.is_valid():
            return HttpResponseRedirect('/thanks'/)
    else:
        form = SomeForm()
    return render(request, 'some_form.html', {'form': form})